Blog Archive

Friday, June 27, 2014

Playing catch-up

Day 2 6/14
Mileage 7

Today was a day! We had a leisurely morning, waking up at 8:45. We were surprised to see that the class hadn't come through during the wee hours. We set off at 10, took a few breaks, filters water, took a couple more breaks, and were on our way. It was foggy all morning, but as it began to lift, we caught glimpses of the majestic peaks that surround us. The magnificence is practically indescribable. Jagged, craggy peaks tower over green, lush valleys, their rocky summits lost in the clouds. There was a bunch of snow on the trail. A whole bunch. Going was slow. We found the tracks of the snow class. They had bypassed the first part of the trail on a nearby snow-covered road. It made navigating a lot easier. It was about 4pm when my knee started hurting. It was mild at first, but soon I could barely walk. I could feel my frustration taking over. I've been planning this for two years, dammit, and my knee is not about to stop me. I know there's nothing wrong with it, I know I'm not going to stop hiking, it knows I'm not going to stop hiking, so it might as well stop hurting. It finally started feeling better in camp. Shortly after my knee flared up, we heard voices! I figured it was too early in the hike for them to be coming from my own head, so I decided they must be coming from the snow class! In under 10 miles! How we caught anything is beyond me, but hey, I guess we just kick some major butt. We saw our first two fellow sobos on the side of a steep, forested traverse. "Buzzkill" had just slipped and a bloke named Mr. Z was giving him a hand. Buzzkill is a nice guy with a bum knee and Mr. Z is an excited southern gent. Shortly after, we found the rest of the group. Donald, a soft spoken kiwi, welcomed us into camp and Ned wandered in shortly after. Tomorrow we're going to have another relaxed morning and follow their tracks again. Tomorrow should end up being a 14 mile day. Hopefully the knee behaves. The plan is to set up a base camp there and do a slack pack (when you don't carry all your stuff) out and back to monument 78, the first significant goal on my hike! The traverses have not been nearly as harrowing as I expected. Apparently they get really sketch after Hart's pass going south, so we'll see how that goes. I'll get more intel from Ned tomorrow. It's 8:30 now and I am schwacked so I best turn in.

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